“More than a shirt, feeding a passion for life”

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Refilwe would like to say a huge thank you
to Kitaid for donating football kit to their football team. Refilwe is a
community development initiative based in Lanseria, Johannesburg. Refilwe's
mission is to help children and adults to become sustainable: spiritually,
mentally and physically, and to break the cycle of poverty in all these areas
so that they can develop into contributing members of their community and
society. Founded in 1991, initially as a health care clinic, Refilwe have since
developed a strong focus on child care, community development and skills
upliftment through education and mentorship. All individuals at Refilwe are
encouraged to improve themselves, ensuring a better future for themselves and
their families.

Refilwe is next to an informal settlement
called Joe Slovo and in the past couple of years the relationship between
Refilwe and Joe Slovo has strengthened considerably. Refilwe employs people
from Joe Slovo, they provide after care and holiday tutoring programs for the
children, every Saturday the children come to Kids Club and are given a hot
lunch, there is a skills upliftment program in horticulture, sewing, catering
and carpentry and Refilwe encourage a hand up rather than a hand out through a
recycling exchange project.

The relationship has been strengthened
through the Refilwe football team combining with the Joe Slovo football team
that now trains weekly and takes part in local Sunday league. The kit that Kitaid
provided replaces a kit that is old and mostly lost. Calday Grange Grammar
School visits Refilwe every year and has done for ten years with a group of
sixth formers and a major part of the visit is the annual Refilwe vs Calday
football match. Calday won the match every year from 2010 to 2014. The
Refilwe/Joe Slovo team had no idea we were bringing them a new kit and were
incredibly excited and grateful to receive it. The coach Etu, pictured with the
old Refilwe FC shirt, has learnt from previous experience and will keep the kit
himself and at every training session or match will hand it out and get it back
at the end in order to make it last longer and keep it in good condition.

Refilwe/Joe Slovo FC played the 2015 match
in their new kit and having trained long and hard for a match they get very
excited about, even creating a new trophy for the occasion, won the match
convincingly with a score of 3:1.

Both Calday and Refilwe would like to thank
Kitaid for their support and the donation of the kit. The whole team was extremely
happy to have received such a generous donation and will enjoy the kit for a
long time to come.

Translate

Welcome to KitAid's blog

Registered charity no. 1113968

This little boy in a tattered Liverpool shirt was the catalyst to KitAid in 1998. Following a trip to Tanzania with WaterAid by Derrick Williams, KitAid was formed and the charity has grown steadily over the years from sending one box to the tiny village in Tanzania to this year donating 100,000 football kits to children and adults in some of the poorest countries in the World.

Many of these kits have been loved by children and adults in the UK and are now being loved again by people, thousands of miles away. Bringing us together is the passion for football and big smiles on our faces.